[CHAPTERFIC] Cerulean Chapter Five (Axis Powers Hetalia)
Title: Cerulean [FF.NET] [ Writing Journal Previous Chapters ]
Pairing: Main: AmericaxEngland. Minor: CanadaxUkraine, SwedenxFinland, DenmarkxNorway, PolandxLithuania, SpainxSouth Italy.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance/Humor/Drama/Alternate Universe
Word Count: 4,115
Summary: Arthur is spending a normal summer at his father's beach house in Cape Cod, when he encounters the extraordinary in the form of an enthusiastic young merman named Alfred, who holds an intense curiosity for Arthur. Over one summer, they'll fall in love. Over one summer, their lives will change forever.
Chapter Summary: He was dating a merman. Three days ago, the mere idea of Alfred even existing had been a preposterous one. Now he was, for the third day in a row, spending time alone with him. Whether it was sitting on a dock or on the back of a yacht, it was just the two of them with only the sea as their company. In retrospect, it was… rather intimate.
Author's Note: I have added two beautiful fanarts by lumosolarum to the fic fanart post HERE! Thank you so much. ♥
Nikolas- Norway
Derek- Denmark
Arthur swallowed, thick and heavy in his throat, and he could hear his heart thumping in his ears. He dared to look up from Alfred’s hand, where the pearl shone in his palm, to his face, and noted that the merman was looking away, a bashful flush to his features.
What was he to say? His mouth felt dry and his eyes were wide and unblinking. Was there any real reason to reject the gift? It’s not as if he didn’t like Alfred. Of course he did. He just… didn’t imagine it very plausible that Alfred liked him that way in return.
It was too early to tell how much he felt for Alfred, but at the very least, he’d thought, since day one, that he’d very much like to date someone like him.
This was only day three though! But it wasn’t as if it was unusual to meet someone and ask them to go out with them soon after. Dating was, after all, a trial period for a relationship, wasn’t it?
He assumed that it was the same for Alfred. The merman appeared to take relations of a more… intimate nature very seriously, but this was just courting. Nothing like that! Then again, a pearl wasn’t exactly a small gift.
Idiot. He lives in the ocean. It’s quite likely they’re not as valuable down there.
Still, it was a big pearl. And he’d been kissing him since their first meeting.
Plus, there was that whole problem with the fin and the tail and the---
Oh bugger it all, it’s just dating.
Arthur licked his dry lips and gave Alfred a small, touched smile. He reached forward and deftly took the pearl from his hand. “Are you serious, Alfred?” he asked, and he knew his cheeks were bright red.
Alfred nodded. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? I mean it’s probably not that great a gift, but I’m pretty awesome and---“
“Don’t be stupid. It’s an amazing gift,” Arthur interrupted. “Do you know how much this is worth?”
He cocked his head, and Arthur noticed that the sun had almost set entirely behind him. “No?”
Arthur chuckled, letting his feet splash back and forth in the water. “It’s worth a lot, I can tell you that.”
At this, Alfred smiled wide. “Really? I was hoping it was.”
“It is.” Arthur held the pearl in his palm and curled his fingers inward, running them across it. It shone, iridescent in the blossoming moonlight. “Look I…” he paused, his face still hot, “if this is what you want to do… I wouldn’t mind.”
Alfred looked genuinely bewildered. “Huh?”
“I-I mean with the kissing and the gift-giving and the…” he laughed awkwardly, scratching a cheek with his free hand, “You’re not very subtle, honestly.”
“Well why would I need to be subtle?”
“Ah well…” Arthur’s heart pounded. Alfred was staring at him, point blank, having said his previous words with no hesitation. He really did want this, didn’t he? He clenched the pearl in his fist, gently putting it in his pocket and buttoning the pocket shut. “A-Are we seeing each other then?”
Alfred cocked his head in that (all too adorable) manner that usually accompanied bewilderment. Shit. He’d messed up. “What do you mean? I see you right now!”
Oh well. Arthur sighed in relief. “Git, I don’t mean are you looking at me. I do apologize… sometimes it’s hard because I can’t predict which slang or turns of phrase you’re going to know.” He took a deep breath.
“What do you mean then?” Alfred had turned his entire body toward Arthur, his fin more than halfway on the dock now.
“I mean…” He closed his eyes to calm himself, willing the heat that was inevitably rising to his cheeks to go away. It didn’t work. “Are we… well we spend time together, and you’re giving me gifts and….” he paused, “does this mean we’re dating?”
Alfred’s eyes grew large and he sat silent, as if processing Arthur’s words. His own face was flushed, and his body was stiff. His mouth had fallen open slightly. “Y-you wanna date me?”
“W-well yes… I assumed that was… what you were implying with the---“
“That’s awesome!” Alfred interrupted, shouting in excitement.
Arthur was about to respond when Alfred’s body crashed into his, nearly knocking the wind out of him. The merman pressed himself against Arthur, arms wrapped tightly around his center and cheek nuzzled in the crook of his shoulder. His fin was entirely on the dock now, Arthur noticed.
“G-git… what are you…”
Oh right. They were dating.
“Never mind,” Arthur chuckled. He placed a hand on Alfred’s back in a half embrace, patting it and running his hand across the bare expanse of skin.
He could practically feel Alfred beaming into his shoulder, and warmth pooled in his chest at this. That he could make someone so happy it--- truly amazed him.
Arthur thought that it must have been almost half a minute before Alfred pulled away. He was resting his hands on Arthur’s forearms now, grinning as wide as expected.
“Is that a yes then?” Arthur queried, his lips curling up in a wry smile.
Alfred nodded vigorously, almost bouncing as he did so. “I was really worried about the pearl, you know,” he said. He’d relaxed his position, now bending his tail beneath him in a similar manner as to how Arthur might sit on his knees.
Arthur raised his thick brows. “That’s quite silly of you.”
“I guess so.” Alfred rubbed the back of his head, a sheepish smile on his face. “I mean obviously a hero like me would pick a good gift, but still. I’ve been told that merpeople used to use them for trade with humans, so I knew they were valuable a long time ago but…”
“Extremely valuable, Alfred,” Arthur interrupted. “It’s an astounding gift. You’re a right idiot for giving it to me, to be honest.”
Alfred flushed pink and shrugged. “W-well, it’s… there’s not money and stuff where I come from. Food is one of the only things of real value, you know?”
“Yes, of course. That makes sense.”
Starlight had settled on the summer sky, and it painted the ocean in glittering blue. Alfred still had one hand resting on Arthur’s forearm, and hesitantly, Arthur reached up and placed a hand atop of his.
He was dating a merman. Three days ago, the mere idea of Alfred even existing had been a preposterous one. Now he was, for the third day in a row, spending time alone with him. Whether it was sitting on a dock or on the back of a yacht, it was just the two of them with only the sea as their company. In retrospect, it was… rather intimate.
“What do you want to do for our dates?” Alfred leaned forward and asked.
Arthur gulped, his hand still steady on the merman’s. “D-dates?”
Alfred turned his face away, his cheeks flushed. “Well uh… if we’re dating, we should do things like that, right? Humans go out together. I know they do. I’ve… seen people doing it out on boats and stuff.”
“Yes, you’re quite right.” Arthur felt his own face heating. “W-well normally I would... say we could go out to restaurants or to the movie theatre or… things of that sort.” He bit his lip. “But our… situation is rather different, all things considering.”
Alfred faced him again. He frowned. “Oh yeah… it would be really cool if I could do all of that with you though…”
Arthur moved his hand up Alfred’s wrist, and unthinkingly, he found himself running his fingers over the smooth blue flesh that led into the fin on his forearm. “Don’t be daft. It’s quite all right. Do you have any ideas then? Perhaps places you merpeople like to go? Keeping in mind that I can’t breathe underwater, of course.”
Alfred smiled. “Well uh… do you like seals?”
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Arthur wondered again, if he had gone crazy. It was past nine p.m., after dark, and he was speeding along on a yacht to an unknown destination. His only guide was a merman; one who was sitting on the back of the yacht and shouting directions to him amidst humming a song very loudly. Arthur vaguely recognized the song as something by Lady Gaga, and assumed that Alfred had heard it playing on one of the party boats that enjoyed cruising the sound.
Alfred had neither compass, nor any other material manner in which to navigate, but he spoke with confidence and knowledge as to how to get where they were going. Arthur frowned as he gripped the steering wheel. The ocean all looked the same to him, once they were out this far. He could see the vague outline of the shore, but couldn’t make out any details. The shore that he was looking at now may have been the island Alfred had said they were going to. He hoped so.
“ALMOST THERE! JUST KEEP GOING STRAIGHT, THEN GO NORTH TO THE TIP,” Alfred yelled.
“RIGHT. IS THAT IT AHEAD?” Arthur asked, shouting over the motor.
“YEAH!”
“BRILLIANT.” Arthur sped up a bit, leaving a trail of white foam in his wake.
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Once they reached the island, the first thing Arthur noticed is that there was absolutely nowhere for him to dock near the sandy beach. Alfred had laughed, shrugging and admitting he hadn’t thought about that.
“Don’t you have an anchor? Just anchor it here where it’s shallow and we’ll swim, all right?” Alfred offered, from his point sitting at the end of the yacht. Arthur turned off the boat, lowered the anchor, and joined him.
“I wasn’t exactly planning on taking a swim tonight,” Arthur grumbled, crossing his arms.
Alfred reached up and placed a hand on his arm, his smile wide. “You can be really idiotic sometimes too, Arthur!” He laughed. “How do you expect to do something with me that involves leaving the boat, if you refuse to get wet?”
Arthur flushed in indignation. “Well I---I---“ he huffed, “I suppose that’s true.”
Alfred shot him an impish grin, and before he knew it, he’d smacked his fluke down into the ocean, causing a spray of water to fly up and splash Arthur soundly in the face.
“Do you need help swimming or something?”
“I am quite capable of swimming, thank you very much,” Arthur retorted. He rolled his eyes and unbuttoned his shirt, throwing it on the side bench of the yacht. His shoes joined it thereafter.
Alfred just smiled, slipping into the water and gesturing for Arthur to join him. He dipped his toes in, allowing himself to get used to the temperature, and then he slid in.
The water was over his head, that much was obvious. They were a good twenty-five meters out, and gentle waves were lapping over him as he floated. “But I’ve seen you swim. You’re right quick. Faster than any human, let alone me.”
Alfred laughed. “Of course I am! I probably couldn’t have kept up with your boat, but if you’d gone a little bit slower, it wouldn’t have been much of a problem.”
Arthur’s eyes grew large. “I was going eighteen knots per hour!”
“I have no idea what that means, but I guess it’s fast?” Alfred was treading water gently with his hands.
“It certainly is,” Arthur replied. “Now we’re just swimming near the shore? I thought you said something about seals...”
Alfred nodded. He raised his hand and pointed to a small shoal. “The beach on the other side of that. I thought if we parked the boat too close, we might scare them.” He shrugged. “There’s another beach nearby that gets a lot of visitors, but this group of seals is a little more isolated.”
Arthur blinked. The shoal was small, extending only about ten meters into the ocean. He began swimming toward it, Alfred following.
The water was cool and dark, but the almost full moon shone quite a lot of light onto both the ocean and the beach.
He could tell that Alfred was struggling to keep to a similar pace as him. He was feebly moving his fin up and down and almost sluggishly pushing his arms in and out. It was a tad humiliating for Arthur, to be honest.
And, he cursed inwardly, Alfred was growing visibly impatient. Arthur was not only far slower than him, but he also had to battle with the waves more as they tried to push him back. It wasn’t difficult, and he truly didn’t consider himself a bad swimmer. But compared to Alfred…
He gasped when he felt a weight around his center, his eyes growing wide in shock. He was about to give it a solid kick when he realized it was Alfred. He had a rather pouty expression on his face.
“It’s uh--- really hard for me to swim that slow,” Alfred said. “So I can just… carry you.”
Arthur’s cheeks burned in embarrassment. “G-git!”
“I’m not insulting you. It’s just true…” Alfred explained. He tightened his hold on his center, and Arthur realized that he was blushing not just because he felt inadequate, but because Alfred was clinging firmly to his bare stomach. And he was pressed to Alfred’s side. He could feel his fin brushing his legs every few moments.
Arthur swallowed thickly. “Y-you know what you said about me needing to get wet. About how… I couldn’t expect to do many things with you if…”
“Yeah?”
He twisted a bit in Alfred’s grasp, but damn was he strong. “Well that’s fine. A bit of water never hurt anyone, after all. But ah… in the same vein, you can’t expect to date me if you won’t accept my limitations as a human, all right?” He was glancing up at Alfred now, and there was enough moonlight that he could make out his features clearly. His mouth had dropped open in an ‘o.’ “A bit of water never hurt anyone, but a bit of patience never did either.” He reached up and tapped the tip of Alfred’s nose, causing him to flush.
“Is it so bad? Geez I…”
“It is… honestly quite humiliating, Alfred,” Arthur huffed. “Now come on and put me down, all right?”
Alfred obliged, releasing his hold on the other man. “Sorry. Guess you’re right.” He shook his head. “Must be nice… to be able to walk and swim, even if the swimming is slow.”
Arthur smiled. “Don’t be silly. It’s not so great.” He gave a half-smile. “Now where are those seals?”
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They’d stopped swimming once they’d reached a point where it was shallow enough for Arthur to stand with plenty of room, but not so shallow that Alfred was uncomfortable. In the moonlight, about five meters away from the shore, the seals looked like rather speckled rocks on a sandy beach.
“They’re asleep,” Arthur sighed. “Honestly, I’m hardly going to go up there and wake them.”
Alfred just grinned. “Don’t worry about it, Arthur. These guys are cool.”
Arthur scoffed. “Cool? What can you talk to them or something? That wouldn’t be the craziest thing that’s happened to me…”
Alfred scratched his cheek. “Ah, no. They don’t understand my language or anything but… humans have animal companions too, right?”
“Well yes, of course. Dogs and cats and things of that sort.”
Alfred stuck two fingers in his mouth and blew, making a noise that was somewhere between a squeak and a whistle.
“Blimey, that was loud.”
The merman placed a hand on his shoulder. “Just watch.”
The seals were beginning to wake up, yawning and rolling onto their stomachs and looking, admittedly, rather adorable doing so. Arthur was quite thankful that it was a moonlit night. There were about fifteen seals, and all but a couple of them had locked eyes with Alfred.
“You all call them harbor seals,” Alfred explained. “We call them this.” He clicked six times, in varying pitches and lengths, with two intermittent squeaks.
Alfred called out to them again, and several of them began to slip into the water.
“I’m sure they like you, Alfred… but what about me?” Arthur watched, his stomach coiling in worry, as they approached. It’s not that he was scared of seals. He truly wasn’t. But some of them were longer than he was, and all but a few smaller ones were much heavier. If they got scared, that could be cause for concern, right?
“It’s all right, Arthur. These guys know me pretty well. They’ll trust you too.”
Two seals reached them first, and Alfred reached out a hand immediately to stroke them on their heads. “These two are girls. I call them…” he paused, searching for a translation, “Coral and Sandy. They were both born last year. They’re not actually twins, but they look so much alike!”
Alfred reached down and scratched their stomachs, which they seemed to enjoy a lot based on the blissful expressions on their faces. They’d both closed their eyes in delight at his administrations, and although Arthur knew better, it appeared to him that they were smiling.
“You can touch them, Arthur.”
Three more seals had come up, and now they were surrounded by them, two men (well, one merman), in the middle of a circle of seals. Arthur gulped and tentatively reached his hand out to the closest of them, a mid-sized seal with darker fur than the two girls. “H-hallo…”
Taking a deep breath, he placed his fingers atop the seal’s head. It did not pull away, but instead leaned into Arthur’s touch. His eyes lit up in amazement, as he stroked its soft dense fur. “W-who is this?”
“Kelpie!” Alfred supplied. “He likes you a lot.”
Arthur surveyed the dark, almost black, seal again. “You know there are legends over in the British Isles, where I’m from, about a creature called a Kelpie. Water horses, with skin like a seal’s… they’re rather… sinister.”
Alfred reached over and stroked Kelpie on the nose. “We have a name for that too.” He demonstrated, but the clicks on this particular word were almost too quiet to hear.
“You mean they’re real?” Arthur gasped.
“I don’t know. Nikolas says they were, at least.” Alfred shrugged. “But I just named him Kelpie because I thought it was cute. You know, Kelp… like the seaweed?”
Arthur chuckled, feeling a bit daft. “Ah yes, of course.” He turned to another seal, which had just nudged him in the elbow. “I never knew seals to be the… cuddly type, Alfred.”
The merman scratched a newly arrived, very large seal under the chin. “They probably won’t let humans touch them most of the time, but we’ve had seals as companions forever. Our disguise only works on humans, so animals see us as we are.”
Arthur cocked an eyebrow. “Speaking of, what about dolphins? Are they your companions too?”
“Definitely dolphins and porpoises and… even whales sometimes. Otters too, although there aren’t any around here.”
“Mammals like you then?” Arthur queried. “I suppose that makes sense. Humans are much the same…”
Alfred nodded. “Humans keep theirs at home though, right? We don’t really do that. I mean we don’t have houses or anything so… we just kind of bond.”
“I-I see.” One seal had just swum a circle around him, and he’d snatched its flipper, shaking it much like he would the paw of a dog.
He was distracted by his own very playful seal when he heard a robust laugh. Arthur whipped his head back to Alfred and his green eyes grew large. He was holding a seal up to his face, allowing it to press wet kisses to its nose much like someone might a puppy.
And it was indeed, exactly that. A seal pup. Its fur was thicker than the fur of its adult counterparts, and its face was… rather cherubic. Arthur’s expression softened. “I haven’t named her yet. I’ve been debating since she was born… around the time of the last full moon.”
“She’s really adorable,” Arthur admitted. He bit his lip. “May I?”
Alfred scratched the seal’s back where, Arthur noticed, some of the thicker and downier fur was starting to shed off. “Uh hold on.”
He turned to another seal, one that was floating right next to him. Leaning down, he spoke to it in gentle, reassuring clicks.
“Awesome. It should be fine,” Alfred said, straightening back up.
Arthur chuckled. “Did you have to ask Mum?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” He held the pup out to Arthur. “Careful, she’s heavier than she looks.”
Gingerly and with utmost care, Arthur took the pup from Alfred’s arm. He buckled under her weight, and immediately held her to his chest as a brace. “H-hello love,” he whispered, rocking slightly in the waves. He stroked behind the holes that were her ears. “They really are beautiful, Alfred,” Arthur professed. “Brilliant. This is… a privilege.”
Alfred beamed with pride. “So it’s a good date then?”
Arthur smiled, wide and genuine. “It’s an amazing date.”
The merman and the human floated and stood in the ocean, bathed in the moonlight and surrounded by seals, and Arthur thought, that this was… well, it was stupid to deny it; one of the most magical moments of his entire life.
He was interrupted by Alfred faking a cough. Looking over, he noticed that Alfred’s cheeks had flushed scarlet. “D-do you uh… do you wanna uh--- name her? I mean I haven’t thought of anything and---“
“Viviane,” he offered, as he continued to rock the seal in his arms. “Um, that is… I understand if you don’t like---“
“No, Viviane is great!” He gestured, his hands in front of him. “What’s it mean?”
“It’s one of the names given for the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend,” he clarified. “It means lively though, in Latin.”
Alfred’s mouth dropped. “Arthurian? You have an entire legend with your name?”
Arthur laughed lightly. “King Arthur is one of the most well known legends there is. My Mum studied it for years, and that’s where I got my name.”
The merman reached over and scratched Viviane’s back. “You’re named after a King? That’s awesome.”
“I’m not the only one,” Arthur countered. “The man who is considered by many to be the greatest of all Kings of England was named Alfred.”
Alfred’s face brightened. “A hero then?”
“You bet your life he was,” he affirmed. “Anyway, sorry. I love talking about things like this, but Francis tells me it’s part of the reason I don’t have much of a social life. I say sod off but--- “
“I like it,” Alfred cut in. His cheeks pinked. “I mean… it’s cool… to hear all the things you’re telling me, you know? I’m really interested in mythology and history and stuff. Nikolas and Derek tell me everything they know, and I can’t get enough.”
Arthur gaped in shock, nearly dropping the seal pup. “H-honestly?”
“Yeah! So next time we meet, can you tell me about King Arthur?”
“Of course… I’d love to,” he responded, half breathless. “And will you tell me one?”
Alfred nodded, enthusiastic. “I’ll tell you about Queen Rán and her daughters!”
“And then would you like to hear about Alfred the Great? That one is one hundred percent true,” Arthur asked, and his voice rose in excitement as he spoke.
“Yeah. It sounds so awesome! I’ll tell you--- I’ll surprise you after that, okay?”
“That sounds perfect.” He smiled at Alfred, and the merman smiled back, his blue eyes twinkling with mirth. A nudge on his arm interrupted him, and he glanced down to see Viviane’s mother staring at him. “I suppose you want your little girl back.” Arthur hesitated, but then lowered his face to Viviane’s, receiving a wet nose kiss in return. “It was very nice to meet you, Viviane.”
He placed her in the water and watched as she and her mother swam to the shore. The other seals were beginning to scatter away as well. “We did wake them up, so they’re probably tired,” Alfred reasoned. “Ready to swim back now?”
“Yes. I suppose we should go back before it gets any later,” Arthur replied. He scratched his temple and smiled nervously.
“Okay, sounds good!” Alfred was about to push himself off into a swim, when Arthur snatched his arm and pulled him back. Quick as he could, so he wouldn’t change his mind, he maneuvered the surprised Alfred face to face with him, leaned forward, and planted a chaste kiss upon his cheek.
“Wha---“
Arthur’s face was red, but he managed a smile. “Just thought I should return the favor.”
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Notes:
-There are large colonies of both Harbor Seals and Gray Seals in Nantucket. They live there year round. There are tourist boats that you can pay to take tours on to see them, which is what Alfred mentions when he says his are a little more isolated. Alfred and Arthur to go Monomoy Island! It would be about twelve miles by boat from where Arthur lives, which is about ten nautical miles. As his boat goes eighteen knots an hour, I'd say it took them about forty minutes to get to Monomoy from Osterville. Hopefully I'm correct. Alfred's ability to swim at a speed 'a little slower' than eighteen knots an hour (about 21 mph) comes from dolphin swimming speeds. When not aided by anything, dolphins can swim at about 14 knots per hour. I don't see Alfred being quite this fast. I'd imagine more like twelve for him (that's about thirteen mph), so it's a bit more than 'a little slower.' Alfred is slightly exaggerating his awesome. His casual swimming speed would be much slower, probably about 4.5 knots an hour (that's 5.1 miles per hour).
This doesn't sound that fast, but the truth is that the average swimming speed for humans is around half a mile an hour when casually swimming. A trained athletic swimmer might be able to swim a mile or two an hour, but keep in mind these are also speeds measured without waves and ocean influence. Even an Olympic Gold medal swimmer rarely tops four miles an hour, and the record for long distance swimming is under four miles an hour.
So yeah, poor Arthur is pretty slow compared to Alfred.
Pairing: Main: AmericaxEngland. Minor: CanadaxUkraine, SwedenxFinland, DenmarkxNorway, PolandxLithuania, SpainxSouth Italy.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance/Humor/Drama/Alternate Universe
Word Count: 4,115
Summary: Arthur is spending a normal summer at his father's beach house in Cape Cod, when he encounters the extraordinary in the form of an enthusiastic young merman named Alfred, who holds an intense curiosity for Arthur. Over one summer, they'll fall in love. Over one summer, their lives will change forever.
Chapter Summary: He was dating a merman. Three days ago, the mere idea of Alfred even existing had been a preposterous one. Now he was, for the third day in a row, spending time alone with him. Whether it was sitting on a dock or on the back of a yacht, it was just the two of them with only the sea as their company. In retrospect, it was… rather intimate.
Author's Note: I have added two beautiful fanarts by lumosolarum to the fic fanart post HERE! Thank you so much. ♥
Nikolas- Norway
Derek- Denmark
Arthur swallowed, thick and heavy in his throat, and he could hear his heart thumping in his ears. He dared to look up from Alfred’s hand, where the pearl shone in his palm, to his face, and noted that the merman was looking away, a bashful flush to his features.
What was he to say? His mouth felt dry and his eyes were wide and unblinking. Was there any real reason to reject the gift? It’s not as if he didn’t like Alfred. Of course he did. He just… didn’t imagine it very plausible that Alfred liked him that way in return.
It was too early to tell how much he felt for Alfred, but at the very least, he’d thought, since day one, that he’d very much like to date someone like him.
This was only day three though! But it wasn’t as if it was unusual to meet someone and ask them to go out with them soon after. Dating was, after all, a trial period for a relationship, wasn’t it?
He assumed that it was the same for Alfred. The merman appeared to take relations of a more… intimate nature very seriously, but this was just courting. Nothing like that! Then again, a pearl wasn’t exactly a small gift.
Idiot. He lives in the ocean. It’s quite likely they’re not as valuable down there.
Still, it was a big pearl. And he’d been kissing him since their first meeting.
Plus, there was that whole problem with the fin and the tail and the---
Oh bugger it all, it’s just dating.
Arthur licked his dry lips and gave Alfred a small, touched smile. He reached forward and deftly took the pearl from his hand. “Are you serious, Alfred?” he asked, and he knew his cheeks were bright red.
Alfred nodded. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? I mean it’s probably not that great a gift, but I’m pretty awesome and---“
“Don’t be stupid. It’s an amazing gift,” Arthur interrupted. “Do you know how much this is worth?”
He cocked his head, and Arthur noticed that the sun had almost set entirely behind him. “No?”
Arthur chuckled, letting his feet splash back and forth in the water. “It’s worth a lot, I can tell you that.”
At this, Alfred smiled wide. “Really? I was hoping it was.”
“It is.” Arthur held the pearl in his palm and curled his fingers inward, running them across it. It shone, iridescent in the blossoming moonlight. “Look I…” he paused, his face still hot, “if this is what you want to do… I wouldn’t mind.”
Alfred looked genuinely bewildered. “Huh?”
“I-I mean with the kissing and the gift-giving and the…” he laughed awkwardly, scratching a cheek with his free hand, “You’re not very subtle, honestly.”
“Well why would I need to be subtle?”
“Ah well…” Arthur’s heart pounded. Alfred was staring at him, point blank, having said his previous words with no hesitation. He really did want this, didn’t he? He clenched the pearl in his fist, gently putting it in his pocket and buttoning the pocket shut. “A-Are we seeing each other then?”
Alfred cocked his head in that (all too adorable) manner that usually accompanied bewilderment. Shit. He’d messed up. “What do you mean? I see you right now!”
Oh well. Arthur sighed in relief. “Git, I don’t mean are you looking at me. I do apologize… sometimes it’s hard because I can’t predict which slang or turns of phrase you’re going to know.” He took a deep breath.
“What do you mean then?” Alfred had turned his entire body toward Arthur, his fin more than halfway on the dock now.
“I mean…” He closed his eyes to calm himself, willing the heat that was inevitably rising to his cheeks to go away. It didn’t work. “Are we… well we spend time together, and you’re giving me gifts and….” he paused, “does this mean we’re dating?”
Alfred’s eyes grew large and he sat silent, as if processing Arthur’s words. His own face was flushed, and his body was stiff. His mouth had fallen open slightly. “Y-you wanna date me?”
“W-well yes… I assumed that was… what you were implying with the---“
“That’s awesome!” Alfred interrupted, shouting in excitement.
Arthur was about to respond when Alfred’s body crashed into his, nearly knocking the wind out of him. The merman pressed himself against Arthur, arms wrapped tightly around his center and cheek nuzzled in the crook of his shoulder. His fin was entirely on the dock now, Arthur noticed.
“G-git… what are you…”
Oh right. They were dating.
“Never mind,” Arthur chuckled. He placed a hand on Alfred’s back in a half embrace, patting it and running his hand across the bare expanse of skin.
He could practically feel Alfred beaming into his shoulder, and warmth pooled in his chest at this. That he could make someone so happy it--- truly amazed him.
Arthur thought that it must have been almost half a minute before Alfred pulled away. He was resting his hands on Arthur’s forearms now, grinning as wide as expected.
“Is that a yes then?” Arthur queried, his lips curling up in a wry smile.
Alfred nodded vigorously, almost bouncing as he did so. “I was really worried about the pearl, you know,” he said. He’d relaxed his position, now bending his tail beneath him in a similar manner as to how Arthur might sit on his knees.
Arthur raised his thick brows. “That’s quite silly of you.”
“I guess so.” Alfred rubbed the back of his head, a sheepish smile on his face. “I mean obviously a hero like me would pick a good gift, but still. I’ve been told that merpeople used to use them for trade with humans, so I knew they were valuable a long time ago but…”
“Extremely valuable, Alfred,” Arthur interrupted. “It’s an astounding gift. You’re a right idiot for giving it to me, to be honest.”
Alfred flushed pink and shrugged. “W-well, it’s… there’s not money and stuff where I come from. Food is one of the only things of real value, you know?”
“Yes, of course. That makes sense.”
Starlight had settled on the summer sky, and it painted the ocean in glittering blue. Alfred still had one hand resting on Arthur’s forearm, and hesitantly, Arthur reached up and placed a hand atop of his.
He was dating a merman. Three days ago, the mere idea of Alfred even existing had been a preposterous one. Now he was, for the third day in a row, spending time alone with him. Whether it was sitting on a dock or on the back of a yacht, it was just the two of them with only the sea as their company. In retrospect, it was… rather intimate.
“What do you want to do for our dates?” Alfred leaned forward and asked.
Arthur gulped, his hand still steady on the merman’s. “D-dates?”
Alfred turned his face away, his cheeks flushed. “Well uh… if we’re dating, we should do things like that, right? Humans go out together. I know they do. I’ve… seen people doing it out on boats and stuff.”
“Yes, you’re quite right.” Arthur felt his own face heating. “W-well normally I would... say we could go out to restaurants or to the movie theatre or… things of that sort.” He bit his lip. “But our… situation is rather different, all things considering.”
Alfred faced him again. He frowned. “Oh yeah… it would be really cool if I could do all of that with you though…”
Arthur moved his hand up Alfred’s wrist, and unthinkingly, he found himself running his fingers over the smooth blue flesh that led into the fin on his forearm. “Don’t be daft. It’s quite all right. Do you have any ideas then? Perhaps places you merpeople like to go? Keeping in mind that I can’t breathe underwater, of course.”
Alfred smiled. “Well uh… do you like seals?”
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Arthur wondered again, if he had gone crazy. It was past nine p.m., after dark, and he was speeding along on a yacht to an unknown destination. His only guide was a merman; one who was sitting on the back of the yacht and shouting directions to him amidst humming a song very loudly. Arthur vaguely recognized the song as something by Lady Gaga, and assumed that Alfred had heard it playing on one of the party boats that enjoyed cruising the sound.
Alfred had neither compass, nor any other material manner in which to navigate, but he spoke with confidence and knowledge as to how to get where they were going. Arthur frowned as he gripped the steering wheel. The ocean all looked the same to him, once they were out this far. He could see the vague outline of the shore, but couldn’t make out any details. The shore that he was looking at now may have been the island Alfred had said they were going to. He hoped so.
“ALMOST THERE! JUST KEEP GOING STRAIGHT, THEN GO NORTH TO THE TIP,” Alfred yelled.
“RIGHT. IS THAT IT AHEAD?” Arthur asked, shouting over the motor.
“YEAH!”
“BRILLIANT.” Arthur sped up a bit, leaving a trail of white foam in his wake.
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Once they reached the island, the first thing Arthur noticed is that there was absolutely nowhere for him to dock near the sandy beach. Alfred had laughed, shrugging and admitting he hadn’t thought about that.
“Don’t you have an anchor? Just anchor it here where it’s shallow and we’ll swim, all right?” Alfred offered, from his point sitting at the end of the yacht. Arthur turned off the boat, lowered the anchor, and joined him.
“I wasn’t exactly planning on taking a swim tonight,” Arthur grumbled, crossing his arms.
Alfred reached up and placed a hand on his arm, his smile wide. “You can be really idiotic sometimes too, Arthur!” He laughed. “How do you expect to do something with me that involves leaving the boat, if you refuse to get wet?”
Arthur flushed in indignation. “Well I---I---“ he huffed, “I suppose that’s true.”
Alfred shot him an impish grin, and before he knew it, he’d smacked his fluke down into the ocean, causing a spray of water to fly up and splash Arthur soundly in the face.
“Do you need help swimming or something?”
“I am quite capable of swimming, thank you very much,” Arthur retorted. He rolled his eyes and unbuttoned his shirt, throwing it on the side bench of the yacht. His shoes joined it thereafter.
Alfred just smiled, slipping into the water and gesturing for Arthur to join him. He dipped his toes in, allowing himself to get used to the temperature, and then he slid in.
The water was over his head, that much was obvious. They were a good twenty-five meters out, and gentle waves were lapping over him as he floated. “But I’ve seen you swim. You’re right quick. Faster than any human, let alone me.”
Alfred laughed. “Of course I am! I probably couldn’t have kept up with your boat, but if you’d gone a little bit slower, it wouldn’t have been much of a problem.”
Arthur’s eyes grew large. “I was going eighteen knots per hour!”
“I have no idea what that means, but I guess it’s fast?” Alfred was treading water gently with his hands.
“It certainly is,” Arthur replied. “Now we’re just swimming near the shore? I thought you said something about seals...”
Alfred nodded. He raised his hand and pointed to a small shoal. “The beach on the other side of that. I thought if we parked the boat too close, we might scare them.” He shrugged. “There’s another beach nearby that gets a lot of visitors, but this group of seals is a little more isolated.”
Arthur blinked. The shoal was small, extending only about ten meters into the ocean. He began swimming toward it, Alfred following.
The water was cool and dark, but the almost full moon shone quite a lot of light onto both the ocean and the beach.
He could tell that Alfred was struggling to keep to a similar pace as him. He was feebly moving his fin up and down and almost sluggishly pushing his arms in and out. It was a tad humiliating for Arthur, to be honest.
And, he cursed inwardly, Alfred was growing visibly impatient. Arthur was not only far slower than him, but he also had to battle with the waves more as they tried to push him back. It wasn’t difficult, and he truly didn’t consider himself a bad swimmer. But compared to Alfred…
He gasped when he felt a weight around his center, his eyes growing wide in shock. He was about to give it a solid kick when he realized it was Alfred. He had a rather pouty expression on his face.
“It’s uh--- really hard for me to swim that slow,” Alfred said. “So I can just… carry you.”
Arthur’s cheeks burned in embarrassment. “G-git!”
“I’m not insulting you. It’s just true…” Alfred explained. He tightened his hold on his center, and Arthur realized that he was blushing not just because he felt inadequate, but because Alfred was clinging firmly to his bare stomach. And he was pressed to Alfred’s side. He could feel his fin brushing his legs every few moments.
Arthur swallowed thickly. “Y-you know what you said about me needing to get wet. About how… I couldn’t expect to do many things with you if…”
“Yeah?”
He twisted a bit in Alfred’s grasp, but damn was he strong. “Well that’s fine. A bit of water never hurt anyone, after all. But ah… in the same vein, you can’t expect to date me if you won’t accept my limitations as a human, all right?” He was glancing up at Alfred now, and there was enough moonlight that he could make out his features clearly. His mouth had dropped open in an ‘o.’ “A bit of water never hurt anyone, but a bit of patience never did either.” He reached up and tapped the tip of Alfred’s nose, causing him to flush.
“Is it so bad? Geez I…”
“It is… honestly quite humiliating, Alfred,” Arthur huffed. “Now come on and put me down, all right?”
Alfred obliged, releasing his hold on the other man. “Sorry. Guess you’re right.” He shook his head. “Must be nice… to be able to walk and swim, even if the swimming is slow.”
Arthur smiled. “Don’t be silly. It’s not so great.” He gave a half-smile. “Now where are those seals?”
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They’d stopped swimming once they’d reached a point where it was shallow enough for Arthur to stand with plenty of room, but not so shallow that Alfred was uncomfortable. In the moonlight, about five meters away from the shore, the seals looked like rather speckled rocks on a sandy beach.
“They’re asleep,” Arthur sighed. “Honestly, I’m hardly going to go up there and wake them.”
Alfred just grinned. “Don’t worry about it, Arthur. These guys are cool.”
Arthur scoffed. “Cool? What can you talk to them or something? That wouldn’t be the craziest thing that’s happened to me…”
Alfred scratched his cheek. “Ah, no. They don’t understand my language or anything but… humans have animal companions too, right?”
“Well yes, of course. Dogs and cats and things of that sort.”
Alfred stuck two fingers in his mouth and blew, making a noise that was somewhere between a squeak and a whistle.
“Blimey, that was loud.”
The merman placed a hand on his shoulder. “Just watch.”
The seals were beginning to wake up, yawning and rolling onto their stomachs and looking, admittedly, rather adorable doing so. Arthur was quite thankful that it was a moonlit night. There were about fifteen seals, and all but a couple of them had locked eyes with Alfred.
“You all call them harbor seals,” Alfred explained. “We call them this.” He clicked six times, in varying pitches and lengths, with two intermittent squeaks.
Alfred called out to them again, and several of them began to slip into the water.
“I’m sure they like you, Alfred… but what about me?” Arthur watched, his stomach coiling in worry, as they approached. It’s not that he was scared of seals. He truly wasn’t. But some of them were longer than he was, and all but a few smaller ones were much heavier. If they got scared, that could be cause for concern, right?
“It’s all right, Arthur. These guys know me pretty well. They’ll trust you too.”
Two seals reached them first, and Alfred reached out a hand immediately to stroke them on their heads. “These two are girls. I call them…” he paused, searching for a translation, “Coral and Sandy. They were both born last year. They’re not actually twins, but they look so much alike!”
Alfred reached down and scratched their stomachs, which they seemed to enjoy a lot based on the blissful expressions on their faces. They’d both closed their eyes in delight at his administrations, and although Arthur knew better, it appeared to him that they were smiling.
“You can touch them, Arthur.”
Three more seals had come up, and now they were surrounded by them, two men (well, one merman), in the middle of a circle of seals. Arthur gulped and tentatively reached his hand out to the closest of them, a mid-sized seal with darker fur than the two girls. “H-hallo…”
Taking a deep breath, he placed his fingers atop the seal’s head. It did not pull away, but instead leaned into Arthur’s touch. His eyes lit up in amazement, as he stroked its soft dense fur. “W-who is this?”
“Kelpie!” Alfred supplied. “He likes you a lot.”
Arthur surveyed the dark, almost black, seal again. “You know there are legends over in the British Isles, where I’m from, about a creature called a Kelpie. Water horses, with skin like a seal’s… they’re rather… sinister.”
Alfred reached over and stroked Kelpie on the nose. “We have a name for that too.” He demonstrated, but the clicks on this particular word were almost too quiet to hear.
“You mean they’re real?” Arthur gasped.
“I don’t know. Nikolas says they were, at least.” Alfred shrugged. “But I just named him Kelpie because I thought it was cute. You know, Kelp… like the seaweed?”
Arthur chuckled, feeling a bit daft. “Ah yes, of course.” He turned to another seal, which had just nudged him in the elbow. “I never knew seals to be the… cuddly type, Alfred.”
The merman scratched a newly arrived, very large seal under the chin. “They probably won’t let humans touch them most of the time, but we’ve had seals as companions forever. Our disguise only works on humans, so animals see us as we are.”
Arthur cocked an eyebrow. “Speaking of, what about dolphins? Are they your companions too?”
“Definitely dolphins and porpoises and… even whales sometimes. Otters too, although there aren’t any around here.”
“Mammals like you then?” Arthur queried. “I suppose that makes sense. Humans are much the same…”
Alfred nodded. “Humans keep theirs at home though, right? We don’t really do that. I mean we don’t have houses or anything so… we just kind of bond.”
“I-I see.” One seal had just swum a circle around him, and he’d snatched its flipper, shaking it much like he would the paw of a dog.
He was distracted by his own very playful seal when he heard a robust laugh. Arthur whipped his head back to Alfred and his green eyes grew large. He was holding a seal up to his face, allowing it to press wet kisses to its nose much like someone might a puppy.
And it was indeed, exactly that. A seal pup. Its fur was thicker than the fur of its adult counterparts, and its face was… rather cherubic. Arthur’s expression softened. “I haven’t named her yet. I’ve been debating since she was born… around the time of the last full moon.”
“She’s really adorable,” Arthur admitted. He bit his lip. “May I?”
Alfred scratched the seal’s back where, Arthur noticed, some of the thicker and downier fur was starting to shed off. “Uh hold on.”
He turned to another seal, one that was floating right next to him. Leaning down, he spoke to it in gentle, reassuring clicks.
“Awesome. It should be fine,” Alfred said, straightening back up.
Arthur chuckled. “Did you have to ask Mum?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” He held the pup out to Arthur. “Careful, she’s heavier than she looks.”
Gingerly and with utmost care, Arthur took the pup from Alfred’s arm. He buckled under her weight, and immediately held her to his chest as a brace. “H-hello love,” he whispered, rocking slightly in the waves. He stroked behind the holes that were her ears. “They really are beautiful, Alfred,” Arthur professed. “Brilliant. This is… a privilege.”
Alfred beamed with pride. “So it’s a good date then?”
Arthur smiled, wide and genuine. “It’s an amazing date.”
The merman and the human floated and stood in the ocean, bathed in the moonlight and surrounded by seals, and Arthur thought, that this was… well, it was stupid to deny it; one of the most magical moments of his entire life.
He was interrupted by Alfred faking a cough. Looking over, he noticed that Alfred’s cheeks had flushed scarlet. “D-do you uh… do you wanna uh--- name her? I mean I haven’t thought of anything and---“
“Viviane,” he offered, as he continued to rock the seal in his arms. “Um, that is… I understand if you don’t like---“
“No, Viviane is great!” He gestured, his hands in front of him. “What’s it mean?”
“It’s one of the names given for the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend,” he clarified. “It means lively though, in Latin.”
Alfred’s mouth dropped. “Arthurian? You have an entire legend with your name?”
Arthur laughed lightly. “King Arthur is one of the most well known legends there is. My Mum studied it for years, and that’s where I got my name.”
The merman reached over and scratched Viviane’s back. “You’re named after a King? That’s awesome.”
“I’m not the only one,” Arthur countered. “The man who is considered by many to be the greatest of all Kings of England was named Alfred.”
Alfred’s face brightened. “A hero then?”
“You bet your life he was,” he affirmed. “Anyway, sorry. I love talking about things like this, but Francis tells me it’s part of the reason I don’t have much of a social life. I say sod off but--- “
“I like it,” Alfred cut in. His cheeks pinked. “I mean… it’s cool… to hear all the things you’re telling me, you know? I’m really interested in mythology and history and stuff. Nikolas and Derek tell me everything they know, and I can’t get enough.”
Arthur gaped in shock, nearly dropping the seal pup. “H-honestly?”
“Yeah! So next time we meet, can you tell me about King Arthur?”
“Of course… I’d love to,” he responded, half breathless. “And will you tell me one?”
Alfred nodded, enthusiastic. “I’ll tell you about Queen Rán and her daughters!”
“And then would you like to hear about Alfred the Great? That one is one hundred percent true,” Arthur asked, and his voice rose in excitement as he spoke.
“Yeah. It sounds so awesome! I’ll tell you--- I’ll surprise you after that, okay?”
“That sounds perfect.” He smiled at Alfred, and the merman smiled back, his blue eyes twinkling with mirth. A nudge on his arm interrupted him, and he glanced down to see Viviane’s mother staring at him. “I suppose you want your little girl back.” Arthur hesitated, but then lowered his face to Viviane’s, receiving a wet nose kiss in return. “It was very nice to meet you, Viviane.”
He placed her in the water and watched as she and her mother swam to the shore. The other seals were beginning to scatter away as well. “We did wake them up, so they’re probably tired,” Alfred reasoned. “Ready to swim back now?”
“Yes. I suppose we should go back before it gets any later,” Arthur replied. He scratched his temple and smiled nervously.
“Okay, sounds good!” Alfred was about to push himself off into a swim, when Arthur snatched his arm and pulled him back. Quick as he could, so he wouldn’t change his mind, he maneuvered the surprised Alfred face to face with him, leaned forward, and planted a chaste kiss upon his cheek.
“Wha---“
Arthur’s face was red, but he managed a smile. “Just thought I should return the favor.”
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Notes:
-There are large colonies of both Harbor Seals and Gray Seals in Nantucket. They live there year round. There are tourist boats that you can pay to take tours on to see them, which is what Alfred mentions when he says his are a little more isolated. Alfred and Arthur to go Monomoy Island! It would be about twelve miles by boat from where Arthur lives, which is about ten nautical miles. As his boat goes eighteen knots an hour, I'd say it took them about forty minutes to get to Monomoy from Osterville. Hopefully I'm correct. Alfred's ability to swim at a speed 'a little slower' than eighteen knots an hour (about 21 mph) comes from dolphin swimming speeds. When not aided by anything, dolphins can swim at about 14 knots per hour. I don't see Alfred being quite this fast. I'd imagine more like twelve for him (that's about thirteen mph), so it's a bit more than 'a little slower.' Alfred is slightly exaggerating his awesome. His casual swimming speed would be much slower, probably about 4.5 knots an hour (that's 5.1 miles per hour).
This doesn't sound that fast, but the truth is that the average swimming speed for humans is around half a mile an hour when casually swimming. A trained athletic swimmer might be able to swim a mile or two an hour, but keep in mind these are also speeds measured without waves and ocean influence. Even an Olympic Gold medal swimmer rarely tops four miles an hour, and the record for long distance swimming is under four miles an hour.
So yeah, poor Arthur is pretty slow compared to Alfred.